E 

<o6S 




THE MOITROE DOCTRIlNrB. 

S P K E C I-I 

' OF 

HON. MOITGOMERY BLAIR, 

AT HAGEFiSTOn^, MD., ON I2i35 JULY, J 865, 

Exposing the alliance of the American Secretary of State with 

Louil Napoleon to overr.hrow the Monroe Doctrine and 

establish a despotism on this Continent. 



Fellow-Citizens: I joiii heartily in thanks to the Ahniglity for the 
success which it has graciously pleased Him to give our efforts m main- 
taining the Government o! our fathers, and I share fully in the gratitude 
and atfection which swells the nation's heart towards all the galhuit men 
who have been His instruments in this great work. I am more especially 
grateful to the soldiers of Maryland, some of whom we have met uere to 
o-rasp by tke hand and to welcome home. They have been eur special 
representatives in those great and ever-memorable fields, some of which 
are so close about us, on which the battles which have decided our tat.- 
and preserved our Government and liberties have been fought. W ell may 
we be proud of our share in these great struggles, when we can say, with 
truth, that on all these trying occasions the men of Maryland have nobly 
performed their duty. The empty sleeves, the shattered limbs, the pallid 
faces here to-day, show that our blood has liowed freely in this cause. . 
And then our absent ones, some of whom still languish in hospitals, but 
how many more, whose sufferings are over, sleep beueath the sod ot those 
fields already so renowned in the world's history ! We will never torget 
them, and their absence here to-day speaks yet more eloquently to our 
hearts of the sacrifices our brethren have made for us and our children, 
and the cause of free government, than the ocars and shattered limbs of 
the bronzed veterans who surround us. Terrible indeed have been the 
conflicts through which they have gone. It has been a contest lu which 
the prowess, courage, and talent of men— all nurtured by our free institu- 
tions—have been tried upon each other. It has been " Greek meeting 
Greek " with the most formidable weapons ever invented, and hence the 
world never witnessed such combats, and the European world has looked_y 
on with mingled fear and astonishment. Never before was th^re such 
destruction v.f life— so many prolonged and indecisive battles. Never be- 
fore so great a military force raised, or such enormous outlays ot money, 
without subjecting to military despotism the people by whom they were 
raisen. . „ 

This fact, which the Count de Montalembert says more surprises liiii-ope 
than even our military operations, surprises no one here, where all feel 






and know that our soldiers were only our best citizens, struggling to pre- 
serve our institutions and to put down usurpation, and tliat they would 
have to change their entire natures before they could he perverted by any 
military leader and made instruiue'nts to destroy that which tliey under- 
took at such sacrifices to preserve. The fact that our veterans are return- 
ing to their homes to pursue their more congenial pursuits, after having 
successfully resisted the attempt to subvert their Government ; having 
maintained the Federal Union as it was, its basis unaltered in any res- 
pect, and our Federal Constitution unchanged, save in the amendment 
which forbids slavery within the Union ; whilst it is taken as a matter of 
course here, because wo know that any other result would be impossible, 
must revolutionize European opinion as to the instability of the Federal 
republican system. In the end, therefore, our own country will not alone 
be indebted for its freedom to the valor and patriotism of the noble band 
we greet here to-day with thanks and blessings. I feel how feeble any 
words are to express the deep feeling which not only pervades this assem- 
bly, but which lives in the hearts and speaks in the eyes of every lover of 
the human family throughout this world, towards any man who has borne 
arms in this cause for the love of it. To their unexampled bravery, to 
their patient labor, to their endurance of cold and heat, hunger and 
thirst, to their sufferings from'Tvounds and disease, do we owe it, under 
God's providence, that we have not now, and possibly in perpetuity, a di- 
vided and distracted country, and, consequent thereon, the introduction 
here of that accursed European system of mercenary standing armies, in 
whose presence all liberty vanishes like mist. Long may the survivors of 
this noble band live to enjoy the honors they are entitled to from the peo- 
ple for their services, and that choicest of all pleasures to such men — to 
witness the prosperity, tr<iuquillity and happiness they have secured to 
their countrymen. Ferhaps there are some of them, some of the younger 
sort, who would like also the smiles of their fair countrywomen, and might 
even prefer to see themselves mirrored in a pair of soft eyes to obtaining 
the homage of all the rest of us. That may seem to be irrational to some, 
but I confess that a man must be older than I am to be astonished at the 
preference, especially when the lasses of Washington, our famous highland 
beauties, are before him. 

After the display of such irresistible power by the American people, with 
our well-known disposition to deal justly with all nations, we ought to ex- 
pect to enjoy a long peace. No fo-eign nation would wantonly provoke a 
conflict with us, for, howeveV powerful, it cannot hope for any but a dis- 
astrous issue ; and yet, but for my confidence in the courag(.^ and jjrudence 
of President Johnson, I should have serious apprehensions of a war with 
France, growing out of the ill-judged course hitherto adopted by our for- 
eign department in relation to the intervention of France in Mexico. No 
one acquainted with the subject can have failed to observe that this depart- 
ment of our Government has hitlierto pursued, and continues to pursua, a 
course in this matter strangely at variance with the feelings of our people 
and witli tlie recognized principles upon which our Government has uni- 
foimly acted. 

The present ruler of France has exhibited, throughout our late struggle 
for existence, a most unfriendly spirit, and availed himself of our diffi- 
culties to invade our sister republic of Mexico, subvert her government, 
and establish there a military despotism, under the nominal head of an 
Austrian prince. Would the crowned heads of Europe submit quietly to 
similar intervention on our part to establish the republican system in 
Hungary, Italy, or any other European country where revolutionary 
movements have arisen from time to time ? We know that such an act 



on our part vrould combine every one of them against us as an aggressor, 
seeking to overthrow their regal governments — the political system of 
that continent. Is the ■ invasion of Mexico by France, in the interests of 
absolutism, -an ^^ less an act of hostility towards the Uuit^'d States and a 
war on the republican system of this ? Certainly not. The proposition 
is too o>)viou.s to require argument or authority to support it. This is the 
gist of the Monroe doctrine, as the manifesto made to preserve ourselves 
agaifist this mode of subverting our pl»pu]ar institutions has been called, 
ever since President Monroe declared his purpose to resist such design 
wlien broached by th(; Holy Alliance in 1823. He states the proposition 
to which I have alluded in this language : "The political system of the 
allied powers is essentially diflerent in this respect from that of America. 
And to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so 
much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of iheir most 
enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, 
this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to caudor and to the 
amiijable relations existing between the United States and those powers, 
to declare that ive should considir any attempt on their part to extend their sys- 
tem to any portion of tliis hemisphere as dani/erous to our peace and safety." 
Again, in 1824, he said: " It is impossilde for the European governments 
to interfere in their concerns, f.the affairs of our neighbors, J es])eci,ally in" 
those alluded to, Ctheir systems of government, _) which are vital, without 
affecting us ; ii/de'-d, the motive lokich. might induce such •interference in the 
present state of the war between the parties, if a war it may be caUed, 
would appear to be equally applicable tv us." Could language be framed 
more appropriate to portray tiie designs of the French Uoverument in 
thwir.int'-rvention in Mexico, and the feelings of our people in regard to it ? 
— and the representatives of the people, in the session before the last, 
adopted a declaration of the saiue purport, even at the risk of bringing 
Trench recognition and open alliance to the rebels whilst our contest was 
at the hi;;hest. There is no blinking the fact, that the French war on 
Mexico was the Emperor's contingent in aid of th^ rebellion against free 
government, and the rebellion has not ended whilst French bayonets main- 
tain a despotism there. 

Do I propose, then, to send our veterans to put it down at once ? I do 
not. 1 believe it will not be necessary. But it is necessary, to prevent 
war, that the French Emperor should be no longer deceived as to the feed, 
ings of the American people in regard to his position there. We need uoft 
Bay what we are able to do. He has seen that we are able to hold the 
territory which our fathers bequeathed us. We should make it manifest 
^also, in a becoming manner, that we mean to maintain the Government 
which they framed for us, and the principles which they asserted as 
necessarv to preserve it— asserted, too, when they were comparatively a 
feeble po"wer, in defiance of the allied powers of the whole continent of 
Kurope. 

The course of our Foreign Secretary and War Secretary will warrant the 
French Emperor in asserting that the policy he has adopted U engraft 
French power on the institutions of this continent, which are cut down to 
make a stock for its support, is approved by our Government. See how 
both our state and War Departments have been subordinated to Napoleon's 
policy. Our House of Representatives re-echoed the voice of the Conven- 
tion that nominated Lincoln and Johnson as candidates, pledged, if elected 
to the Presidency, to reassert and maintain, even in the midst ot the rebel- 
lion the Monroe doctrine, as a protest against the invasion of France to 
overthrow the republican system established as that of our continent, 
taken from the type of that of the United States. The State Department 



instantly dispatched a disclaimer to the Emperor of the French, through 
our minister at Paris, containing the assurance that the opinion of the 
House was not that of the Government, and giving him to und^-stand that 
the Executive would not co-operate with the House. The War Office con- 
firmed this intimation of the State Department immediately, l\v its action. 
An order was entered against the exportation of arms, wliich were essen- 
tial to enable the Mexicans to defend themselves, while the French were 
allowed forage and transportation, '^lich were all they wanted. We had 
an equal right to stop the means of sujiply, which were as essential to 
maintain the Emperor's army in Mexico, as to stop the export of arms, lest 
they might fall into the hands of the invaded Republicans, who, thus dis- 
armed, were compelled to submit to an enemy that came accoutred with 
the best the armories of Europe could furnish. The Mexicans sought, and 
might have obtained but for this order, the arms exported from Europe 
and rejected by our army as not equal to the Springfield gun, bat o\ir 
War Secretary, in complaisance to Fiance, played the part of the dog in 
the manger, and denied the contractors and merchants the right to re-ex- 
port what he bad refused to receive. This interdict was continued even 
to the last of June, for so late were the refuse arms purchased by the 
Mexican agents in San Francisco withheld, although President Johnson or- 
dered its removal within one week after his accession to power. Neverthe- 
less, the revocation was not communicated to our officers in that quarter, 
and hence the Mexican arms were seized, and continue so to be held 
even now. 

But the Emperor of the French is not left to infer the acquiescence of 
our Government in his policy in reference to this continent from even these 
pregnant facts. He has it coiipled with a justification in the handwriting 
of our Minister, under the authority of our Secretary of State. Louis Na- 
poleon's Minister of State, M. Rouher, read to the French Legislative body 
this extract from an official communication of our Minister, Mr. Bigelow, 
containing an assurance of our submission to the estahlislnnent of his 
Mexican Empire, with a view to disarm opposition to it from the represen- 
tatives of the French people, and to quiet their discontents. The Moni- 
tenr, the Government official paper of France, reports Mr. Bigelow's words 
thits : " We four Government} do not like of course to see a monarchy es- 
tablished in Mexico; we prefer, of course, repi\blican institutions • but we 
respect the will of the people ; we can understand how Mexico, 'hat was 
for a long time ruled by a monarchical government, would like to return 
to that form of gOTernmeiit, and we would not go to war for the sake 
of a form of government."* 

*NoTB.— The following reply of Mr. Seward to this stntemenl appeared as a despatch 

to the Associated Press: 

"The iNTEBvii!V between our Ministf.r at Paris akd the French Minister for Fokeicj? 
Affaius relating to Mexico. 
Washington, July 20.— Mr. Bigelow, our Minister at Paris, so soon as he saw (he ver- 
sion which had been given by .M. Rouher, Secretary of State, in France to a eonversa- 
tion which had previously taken place betwetsn Mr. Bigelow and M. iirnyn de 1/Hiiys, 
the Freneh .Minister of Foreign Affairs, concerning Mexico, addressed a note to tliat 
jrentleman di'iiyicjc (lie statements made hy M. Rouher. M. Druyn de I/Huys nn- 
Fwered, admittiiifi; Mr Bittelow's statement to be correct, and tlie statement of M. 
Roulier incorrect. This correspondenee has been long since received at tlie State 
Department, and in due time will \m submitted to Congress."' 

Why is not Mr. Bigeh>w's correction of Mr. Rouhcr's stalement, referred to as long 
sinee m the LepiU-cmeut, given tlie public now. 'Jin .• i i'niice of the Dejiari^ 
ment with France eoTninunicnted to Congress nt its I I I — mmI yet published, I 

believe. '1 he course of events will, no doubt, render -1 _ - correction (which 

is probably not on u very material point) of very little liuiM.i t;air.- ihis time next year. 



Now, here is not oulj acquiescence against our inclinations to the con- 
spiracy which seeks the surrender of Mexico as tlie prey of tne French and 
Austrian potentates, but assigns as reasons for it falsehoods, which are 
made to give it the appearance of a submission' to an honest, democratic 
principle. While all the world knows that republican institutions were 
put dovrn in Mexico by French bayonets, neither the party of Mlramon nor 
Juarez, at war for the Presidency, consenfing to surrender their form of 
government, our American Minister is made to say that tlwy were put 
down by the people themselves ! And yielding submission to this flagrant 
act of war upon the Mexican Republic, and our own, of which it was the 
©ifspring, we are told is but respect to tha will of the people I And thus 
it is argued that the Mexican people, having consented to relinquish their 
independence te the mandate of a foreign usurper, the people of the United 
States must abandon the time-honored policy of our fathers, which the 
public opinion of liberal Europe so sanctioned as to compel even the Holy 
Alliance U) respect it. 

Our Minister in Paris next gives the assurance to the French Emperor 
and the legislative body, ^' That we (speaking for our Administration^ 
car} understand how Mexio, that was for a lone/ time ruled bif a monarchical 
(t'lvernmenl, would like to return to that form of yoverament.'''' Miglit not the 
representative of our country at the French or English Court apply the 
same remark with equal truth to the people of this country as to the peo- 
ple of Mexico? If the French usurper should conquer us and set a Haps- 
burg over us as a Viceroy, doubtless some sycophant to ambition and.power 
among us would give the world to understand how the American people, 
as well as the Mexicans, ^ they were for a long time ruled by a monarchi- 
cal government, would like to return to that form of government! It 
would be just as true of the'first as the last. 

The missive to France having performed its function for the Emperor 
there, the State Department employs its oigan, the New York Times, to 
subserve the purposes of the usurper and maker of thrones here, by advo- 
cating his cause before the American people. Three columns and a-lialf of 
that journal, conducted by Weed and Raymond, well-fed favorites from 
the drippings of the State and War < 'ffices, are employed in arguing away 
the Monroe doctrine, and asserting the lawfulness and justice of the policy 
of the invader of Mexico. The article is ushered in by an editorial ap- 
proval, and has the ear-mark of its Cabinet origin, by putting in the salvo 
which makes a feature in our Minister, Mr. Bigelow's communication to 
Napoleon's Minister of State, M. Rouher, as read by him to the legislative 
body. It has the very tone of our Secretary. It has his diplomatic cm 
precisely as he gave it to Mr. Bigelow. " Of course ("says the Times in its 
colonnade articlej the people of the United States would prefer to see Mexi- 
co liourisli under the republican institutions which sealed their indepen- 
dence in 1808. But it must be admitted that the experience of republi- 
canism in Mexico has not been, on the whole, flattering. Had the case 
been otherwise, the occasion would never have arisen for the European in- 
tervention of 1861." From this position everything done by France in re- 
gard to Mexico is vindicated, and the violation of the Monroe doctrine, 
sanctioned by so many years of tacit admission, is justified. The article 
insists that as Juarez did not pay the debts due the subjects of France, 
had "no material means of honoring his signatu.-e, in which case he re- 
presented only an illusory or inadequate government; or he did not mean 
to honor it, in which case it was proper to punish.' Upon this, the Euro- 
pean governments broke relations with him and united to obtain redress. 
Such, in a few words, was the origin of the Mexican expedition. It had 
but one object — the recovery of sums due to France, and security for 
French citizens." 



6 

Now, this is the ground upon which the overthrow of Mexican indepen- 
dence, and of the Monroe doctrine, is justified. England and ^pain, we 
are told, united with France to obtain redress for the grievances com- 
plained of. I admit it. But did they unite witli France in makinpj the 
independence of tlie country and the liberties of the people a forfeiture 
because Juarez had no matotial meanit of lionorinr/ liis signature, or did not 
me'in to honor it ^" England and Spain, on the contrary, renounced the 
alliance and turned their- prows homeward when they ascertained the 
French Emperor's design was not to exact payment of a debt or indem- 
nity for injury to his subjects, but to overthrow a republic with the 
liberties of a people. IS'eith^r England nor Spain understood, as the des- 
patch from our State Departm,ent authorizes our Minister at Paris to de- 
clare to the French Minister df State " iw understood,'^ that this sudden 
and bold consummation of an enterprise begun under pretence of obtain- 
ing justice, but ending in conquering a natioir, was simply the result of 
respect for the will of that nation. What can be more humbling to the 
pride of our country than to witness its Premier, through our highest 
functionary abroad, making the degrading declaration that his countrymen 
believe that the Mexican people invited and brought in the foreign master, 
while the very allies of France in the origin of the attempt turn their 
backs on it as soon as the real design of conquest was disclosed by Napo- 
leon ? Indeed, he himself had the frankness, when fairly embarked on 
its expedition, to despise such subterfuges and to avow his real purpose to 
the* woild, proclaiming through the press of Europe that his object was 
" «o give the ascendency to the Latin race " throughout the southern section 
of our continent. This was an appeal to all of French or Spanish lineage 
holding possessions in the regions washed^by the Gulf of Mexico to join 
his standard. It was in the spirit of the* design of the Holy Alliance, 
when the arbiter of thrones, after settling affairs in Europe, it proposed to 
re-establish its viceroyships. which the pojiular power on this continent 
had repudiated. The British Minister, Canning, saw in the restoration of 
European potentates on this continent a renewal of colonial bondage and . 
commercial monopoly. The American President, Monroe, saw in it a war 
upon republican commonwealths which inevitably involved our own. 
Upon these considerations, the American and British Cabinets concurred 
that it was wise to confront the design of the Holy Alliance with the Mon- 
roe doctrine. It was this concurrence of the Anglo-Saxon governments, 
looking to the preservation of the free institutions on ijhich they were 
founded, that arrested the steps of the Holy Allies tencfing to the re- 
establishment of the Latin race witli its imperial absolutism in all the 
Gulf regions. Louis Napoleon renews the attempt, making the principal 
member of the Holy Alliance his colleague in the undertaking. Will the 
north of Europe — will England, espcsially — see with indifference this 
second marriage of France with Austria, meant to give the Bonaparte 
dynasty the mines and men, and the vast commercial material of Spanish- 
America to agrandise its powers in Europe as well as America, and to 
render it more than it was under the first Emperor — the arbiter of both 
continents. 

The present Emperor is ambitious to restore in his own person the reign 
of those great Casars whose occasional advents, he assumes in his history, 
are essential to the progress of the human race. England, it is certain, 
did not contribute tabuild up the power of the last of them, nor as yet does 
she seem willing to assist the grand schemes of his successor. She would 
not countenance his Mexican conquest, nor listen to his repeated importu- 
nities to recognize the States late in rebellion against our Union — States ho- 
sought to cut off fi om our Republic and bring under his wing as consum- 



mating his darling project of " </ie Latin race ascendency ^^ in all regions 
around the (iulf of Mexico. England will not favor it. She has too deep 
a stake in the Anglo-Saxon race and their free institutions. Is it not 
strange that an American statesman should be found willing to establish 
the colossal power of France and Austria in our midst — ready to carry out, 
on any opportune occasion of new sectional discontents, the cherished 
scheme of destroying our Union ? It is certain, if the Latin race gains the- 
ascendency aimed at, it must absorb Central America and hold the isthmus 
and separate us from our Pacific States by the ocean route. Already, in 
advance, we see France planting colonies of rebel refugees, under the 
auspices of a California traitor, in Sonora, to rob us of our sister Republics 
of the far West ; and the French Government has already carried a vote 
in the legislative body providing for transporting a new army of 10,000 
men to effect these objects ; and this immediately followed the concession 
of our State Department, which was read in the Chambers. 

To take the French side in the Mexican contest in such a crisis as this, its 
originator a Bonaparte, avowing designs hostile to republican governments 
and directly subversive of our rights as a nation in the region around the 
Gulf of Mexico, is a daring course in one holding high station in our Gov- 
ernment and looking to the highest. Does he expect to mount by appeal- 
ing to the love of peace and dread of war with France ? Does "he expect 
to gain the support of the holders of the public debt, who may prefer to 
run up their stock by-submission to France, rather thau elevate the glory 
and preserve the free institutions of their country and of the continent by 
patriotic sacrifices ? Cowardice, it should be remembered, invi es oppres- 
sion, because it falls an easy prey. Courage averts war, because it makes 
peace the interest of an enemy. Remember that the rebellion itself, sup- 
pressed without bloodshed by the courage of Andrew Jackson, was fostered 
into war by the cowardice of James Buchanan and his advisn^rs. 

Fortunately, we have at the head of our Government a man of courage, 
judgment and constancy — of patriotism — whom we may well hope neither 
the fear of France, nor the corruption of stockholders or j,obbers, nor the 
blandishments of political aspirants, nor their party machinery, can swerve 
from the maintenance of the long-settled, well-approved policy of his 
country. ^ 

Note. — The proposition, out ol which origiriated the Hampton Roads oonferences be- 
tween the President, witti his Secretary, Seward, on one side, and Jeff. Davis' commis- 
sioners on tlie other, was made by my lather on his mission to Richmond. Its puri)ose 
was to clotie our civil war, by inducing Uavis to carry aueti of liis followers as wished 
to withdraw from the impending overthrow which the appror.chint; eomhination of 
Sherman's army with Giants rendered inevitable, to Mexico, and there employ them 
in expelling the French and restoring the republic. Davis eagerly embraced this idea, 
but wanted an armistice between ''the twu countries " He was told by my father, that 
he had an armistice in the last annual mes.-age of Mr Lincoln, in which he said, in 
effect, that ' if the Confederates would cease to fight him, he would not fiKhtthem.' On 
this understanding he souglu an interview for his commissioners, li was granted, but 
its object deflated by his instructions to his representatives, Stephens, Hunter and 
Campbell, to insist on an armistice between "<Ae two cowji^rjcs," notwithstanding the 
President's note of invitation prescribed as the condition of the interview, the admis- 
sion that allegianee to " Our One Common Country" was the basis of it. llie President's 
communication to Coneres.< gave this true and simple aspect of the proceeding, thus 
ending the matter. Mr. Sewavd immediately wrote, wnd the next day published a 
letter to our Minister in England, in which he stated that the Confederates favored 
Honie ''extrinsic enterprize or plan," And left the impression that the rejection of this 
was the cause of tlie failure to attain peace; and his confidential man's paper, 'TAe 
Press." in printing the letter, explains this "extrinsic plan " U: have been the seizure 
of the Canadas instead of the liberation of Mexico. The effect ol this in France was 
immedijnely to induce the Emper^ r to offer his aid to England to defend her pcsses- 
Bions, and to get up the most notable debate in Parliament on the question of arming and 
fortifying and defending Canada. Nothing was better calculated to increase the entente 
cordiale between France and England, and direct their united fore© against us, than 



this false report; and the feeling againi-t us was aroused still more by a letter of M-. 
S<;w:ird to iMr. Wells, as.suriiing, I liave no doubt without auiiiority, to direct < ur 
cruisers tu insult the British tiag by relusiug the u^u;^l oouru-'sy. Jv)liii liright, by a 
noblo suofcli, exhibiting the true interest and feeling wluch aninuitcd the eominonahty 
of both Km-'hind ana the United States, an-esled the ferment in rarliiimeut; and Mr. 
\s iiite, an-tmr Irii-nd of our country in Piirlianieut, who seems to iiave had informa- 
ti.ai ei::ii.| nz niii tn eoiilront and confound ili<- !al>e a^pe.-t given tu the cuuferences 
a> H 1 !■; u i; ids by the coiiunentary of Mr. s. •, . . - !ir;.il exponent in tln^ Press, 
■M . , , , ..lie the p:i.ius to unravel for us il, . , i ,— wldch were hiililiii in our 
>, . - ,;iiMj;iiou^ language nboul "extri : > ,^ /;v.v." As Jlr. Widic-s brief 

.s,,_,c 1 1- iii.l vi instiuclion to us, as well i\.- in;-!'; , ^ii-.m Tut Mo.\rc£ Uoi'irime, I 
suljjoin it: 

'■Mr. WHITE felt compelled, by the remarks of the hon. baronet the membter for 
Ayr aud his hon. friend tiie memUer for Horsham, to ask those gentlemen wliat they 
piopo.~ed to do lor llie defence of Canada, and whether they were prvp m 1 -. a leiion 

:iii .mioimt of exuHuditure wiiich would soun double the ^National i' ilieiii 

ni'Miiwiuie to forego all hope of the reduction of the malt duty (■■ ,,. , .and 

biu^hter), and sending up the income-tax immediately to Is. Lvej; >.:i a i :Mi;ted 
Willi ilie geographical position of Canada and tht? extent of frontier to bt' d.-K'naed 
would know that these things must be looked plainly in the face if England undertook 
to hold thai coun'ry against a hostile attempt on the part of the Americans. The right 
hull, iienllenian the rnember for Calne represeut"4 the opinion of every one wliose 
opinion was wortii having when he spoke of ihe utter impossibility of holding Canada 
without an e.'wpenditure of money and blood on the part of Great Kritain whico was 
fearful to couieniplate. As to the alarm created by the recent conference between the 
JSortnern and Confederate Commissionei-.^. mi, I the .■,,vi-<^^i.oii'!eM— hPtwetn >lr. Soward 
and i\lr. .'Vdaiiis, It would bi sufficient to t:;: > ;,iii,, ; .!■ ■.'■■: y...: ■■•■'. <<■■'. -w the 

part of the present billigerent:-! had rei.:' ii ■ ^ ' '! - . - nid be 

expelled fiom Mexico. Any on- eonv.-i ;'ii \\;Mi im. >- \ji,ii,;iii \.-:.y\^-- v.naXd. 

see that this wa^ tlie most temjiting Uait wiueu im.- i..onleuer;ues, a-i lbe\' thought, 
could uiier to the North. The light hua. member for Calne had mentioned the Monroe 
doc rihe; he much wished he had explained its nature tu the House. p;very))ody ac- 
quainted with English and Ann la-in hi-toi-y knew tli^u ihe doctrine in question was 
es-sentiallv of Bi'itish origin, a ' . ,: ,» ■: -,-,:■ Wr. Canning. France, having 
put doun'the constitutional I'll. : '■ . -i.ain, entertained the notion 

of defraving herself lor the ix] . ,:,:_ ny acquiring portions oi the 

Snuni<h'e!,l(.nies in !:<outh Ann i ■ i i,,' j u, .i.m. !1, i.i;illy indignant at conduct so 
o' : ' II ,1 1 1 M her interests, and with tlie avi'ision wnieh .Mr. Canning had ever shown 

1: I .;, iplesof the Holy Alliance, induced frosident Monroe to enunciate the 

u. :. !i ,, !:. o had since become so famous. Lest an American authority upon thi.s 
poiii. iiii..^.a be received with some mistrust, he had referred to a work which was in 
tiie liljiaiy of almost every gentleman, and from the last edition of the Encyclopcedia 
Urilnnnica took the following extract:— 

"Jaines Monroe succeed Madison in the Presidency, and retained it eight years (1817 
to ls2")). Towards the close of his administration (1823), in compliance with the sug- 
g'stion of his 8ecietary of State, John Quiney .\dam^, he introduced into his Message 
to Congress— adverting to the purpose of the European allies of Spain to assist lier in 
snl .hiiht' her revolicfeoloiiies in Central and South America— the assertion of 'apriu- 
ei-: !!i ^' ' h ;' ■■ :, ' i: I i nterest of the United States are involved, that the Amori- 
( ,1 • II I , , , . (U.l independent position which they have assumed and 

),:,, ,,,,.!, ,, .,.-^. I ,-,. I iiot to be considered as subjects for future colonization by 
fiin" i-.ioopeau i o,iei. . * * With the '■xi.-f;);^ ("-oi.nies or dependencies of any 

Eiiropeau i^ower,' continues the Message, '« i ' :- iMterfered and shall not inter- 
f'TC. But with the Governments who have ■■ - viir independence and main- 
lainedit, aud whose independence we have on -in : e u ii nation and on just principles 
aeknovvledtred, we could not view any interi-o-uion lor the purpose of oppressing 
them, or controlling in any other manu; r their de.-^tiny by any European Power, in any 
other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United 
States.'' 

Congress took no action upon this, but the spirit of that body and of the nation was 
in favor of the -Monroe doctrine. Lord Brougham, in referring to the President's 
declaration, state I that it had ditFused joy over all free men in Europe; and Sir J. 
Mackintos.i spflfee of it in the following terms: — 

" This wise Government, in grave but determined language, and with that reasonable 
but deliberate tone which becomes true courage, proclaims the principles of her policy 
and makes known the cases in which the care of her own satety will compel lier to 
take up arms for the defence of other States. I have already observed its coincidence 
with the declarations of England, which indeed is perfect, if allowance be made for 
the deeper or at least more immediate interest in the independence of South America 
which near neighborhood gives to tlie United States. This coincidence of the two 
great English commonwealths— for so I delight to call them, and I heartily pray that 
they may be for ever united in the cause of justice and liberty — cannot be contem- 
plated without the utmost pleasure by every enlightened citizen of the earth." 



He trusted that the citation of such high authorities would dissipate the apprehen- 
sions which some seemed to entertain of the operation of the Monroe doc rineWtn 
respect to Canada.'England had not such vast intejests in connexion "^hj^.^t emintry 
as with the United States. By the last returns of the Board of Trade he found that 
the total value of the British exports to the United -states last year was 16, 04,000(., ex- 
ceed ing by 5 000,OOOL the exports to Australia, and being twice as much as the exports 
to France: while the 150,000,000 of the Queen's subjects in India too^^ on ^ 3 000^^^^^^^^ 
more. The trade which this country earned on with ^a^^na find the whole of B.it sh 
North America did not amount n magnitude to one-third of the British trade tainea 
iNorm Ameyc.1 um u „„ j„^ ^u^ 7„fl„„„„p ^f „ hitrh tar tf and during the agonies 



arrivedr tr^ r^ N^Vod; :nd dTih^! num.;^ri;816:^6 were natives of Englan^ 
Scotland, Ireland and Wales. He considered that the tone and \^";'Ptr,rtone^nd^tem- 
hon. member for Horsham was quite s tisfactory, as contrasted withthe tone and tem^ 
per evinc 



ced in a speech delivered in another place by a noble lord who tliey« ere 
;o believe, was the hon. member's leader. The only consolation he derived 
irom tne speech delivered elsewhere was that the noble lord did not regard h.s advent 
aTower as very probable, or he would not^ have Tontured 7, ^>^^h '"«^™f ^^J^/^Jei^ 
euaee as would cause his advent to power to be regarded by the Americans as a decla- 



THE REBELLION -WHERE THE GUILT LIES, 
SP»EEC H 

OF THE 

HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR, 

DELIVEEED AT 

Clarksville, Howard County, Md., on August 26, 1865. 



Fellow-Citizens: It cannot be said that States or men loyal to the 
Union, that remained steadfast to it nntil vanquished b}' the superior 
force of a victorious usurpation wliich reduced all the civil and military 
authorities within the States to subserviency, became rebels by submis- 
sion. Much less can it be said of such States or individuals, entitled by 
their allegiance to the General Government to its protection, Lait which 
Mere surrendered to that usurpation without a blow struck in their de- 
fence by it, became traitors by ceasing to resist frhen effectual resistance 
was no longer possible. Now, tbis was exactly the case of the loyal peo- 
ple of the Seuth, a majority of whom were unquestionably loyal before 
the fall of Fort Sumter, but who found themselves at that moment abso-' 
lutely at the mercy ot the conspirators against the National Republic. 
This state of things was the result of the connivance of the Government 
of the United States with the traitors, who, by the aid of secret societies, 
had organized an overwhelming military force and secured by political in- 
trigue the executive, legislative, and judicial power in the Slave States. 

But mark, especially the part which the Federal authority exerted in ^ 
establishing this usurping power in the South. The President of the / 
United States, Buchanan, was their Executive. Every Cabinet officer ap- 
pointed by him was of their dictation. They had a controlling majority 
in both branches of Congress. The Supreme Court was at their devotion. 
The head of the army, the venerable Li-utenant General Scott, stood 
alone, of all Buchanan's controlling functionaries, true to his country. 
Every other head of administration, with the exception of this time-worn 
patriot, contributed to betray the South into the hands of its enemies. 
The Senate and House of Representatives, in their debate.-, were converted 
into hot-beds of sedition to fire the Southern h^art. Tlie Supreme Court 
fulminated a decision, meant, like the Papal Bull which once consigned, 
the newly-discovered continent to the yoke of Spain, to re-open all that 
part of it which had been freed by State constitution or territorial com- 
pacts to slavery again. — i 

The President declared that if the Slave States seceded, as it was pro- I 
claimed by the Representatives in Congress, they would, if balked in their 
designs, tiiat there was no power in the General Government to coerce 
them to submit to the Constitution and laws, and to defeat even the at- 
tempt at coercion. The army was sent under (ieneral Twiggs to the In- 
dian border of Texas to be surrendered to the traitors there, and the navy 
was dispersed in all directions to the ends of the earth. This was the 
situation at the opening of the Congress which was to usher Mr. LiBcoln 
into his severed government. J 



12 

' But in the interim between the meeting of Congress and the accession o^ 
Mr. Lincoln, the influential men in the Cabinet designated by him, and 
those playing their last cards in Buchanan's Cabinet, were busied in in- 
trigue with conspirators who were setting up their power over the Slave 
States. Buchanan's Secretary of War was doing all he could to confirm it, 
by stripping the armories of the United States, surrendering the army and 
its arms, and handing over all the munitions of war and forts in his power 
to the enemy. Toucey did the same with everything in his power, by 
putting disaflected or imbecile officers in the navy yards and fortified naval 
places in the South, to make the conquest of them easy. Almost all were 
lost before Mr. Lincoln had time to organize his departments and look 
about him. 

Meantime, Mr. Seward, as the designated Premier of Mr, Lincoln's Cabi- 
net, still retaining his place in the Senate of the United States, took his 
part in tlie game — played for and against the Union — the contest, until 
war in the field broke out, being confined to the halls of Congress. Mr. 
Seward's policy then and since, -ind hi a motives, are still a mystery ; but 
the result of his devious course was manifestly detrimental to the cause 
of the Union. In response to the leaders of the rebellion, on the floor of 
the Senate, and who in efi'ect as the Executive power directed the conspira- 
cy from its council chamber in caucus in Washington, Mr. Seward answer- 
ed : "I have such faith in this republican system of ours that there is no 
political good which 1 desire that 1 am not content to seek through its 
peaceful forms of administra' ion without invoking revolutionary action. If 
others shall invoke th.-fl; form of action to oppose and overthrow Govern- 
ment, they shall not, as far as it depends on me, have the excuse that I 
obstinately left myself to be misunderstood. In such a case I can afford to 
meet prejudice with conciliation, exaction with concession which surren- 
ders no principle, and violence with the right hand of peace." This decla- 
ration was justly construed to pledge him to sustain President Buchanan's 
programme, "not to coerce a State," and, therefore, not to resist the dis- 
solution of the Union, the proclaimed purpose of the Senators and Repre- 
sentatives of the Slave States, who were about to leave their seats in the 
National Legislature, and call a Confederate Congress to assume all the 
power over the South, from which it was resolve-l that the Constitution of 
the United States should be banished. The first step ("the inauguration of 
Mr. Lincoln, in March, accomplishedj after Mr. Seward was confirmed as 
Secretary of State by the Senate, brought John Forsyth, Martin J. Craw- 
ford, and A. B. Roman, "commissioners from the Confederate States," 
who, to use their own language, ^' asked audience to adjust, in a spirit of 
amitu and peace, the new relations springing from a manifest and accomjdished 
revolution in the government of the Union.*.' This was on the 12th of March. 
This applicaticn was not answered until the 8th of April, although Mr. 
Seward's declination was prepared on the 15th of March ; but a memoran- 
dum at the close of it adds : " ^1 delivery of the same, hoioever, was delayed 
to Messrs. Forsyth and Crauford, as 2vas understood, with their consent." In 
the interval, communication between Secretary Seward and the Confeder- 
ate Commissioners was carried on by Judge Campbell of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, whose conversations with the Secretary of State 
were witnessed by Judge Nelson, also of the Supreme Court, who sanction- 
ed the following note of the result given, on 15th of March, 1861, to Judge 
Crawford, for information to the Confederate States : 

" / feel entire confidence that Fort Sumter will he evacuated in the next five 
■ days; and this measure is felt as imposing great responsibility on the Ad- 
ministration. 

" I feel entire confidence that no measure changing the existing statiia pr^U' 
liitsiuUif tif th» Southern Con/^eradB States is atpretbnt cMrten^/aMe^. 



13 

" / feel an entire confidence that an answer to the communication of the 
Vonfederate Commissioners wUl be productive of evil, not good, I do not be- 
lieve it ought now to be jtressed.'" 

Mr. Seward, it seems, made no direct reply to a letter of Judge Camp- 
bell referring to tlie pledges lie coiarauuicated from liim to the (.Confeder- 
ate Commissioners, and stating to liim that '^ the pledge to evacuate Fort 
Sumter is less forcible than the words you empfoijed. Tliese words luere, be- 
fore this Utter reaches you (a proposed letter bi/ me to President D ivis) umter 
WILL HAVE BEEN EVACUATED." Mr. Seward did, however, in an authorized 
statement made in the Albany Evening Journal, by Mr. Thurlow Weed, 
admit it. Weed says that " Governor Seioard, i-onversed freely with Judge 
Campbell we do nut denij, imr do we doubt that in these conversations, at one 
period, he intimated that Fort Sutnter would be evacuated. He certainty believed 
so, founding his opinion on his Icnoivledge "/' General Scott^s recommendation." 

Now, this mode of escaping the responsibility of his assurance to .JeflF. 
Davis th it Sumter would be evacuated, is like that of Teucei skulking 
from danger by shooting his arrows under the cover of the shield of Ajax. 
It is well known that General' Soott. before Buchanan sent his non-coer- 
cion message to Congress, and as soon as preparation for revolt in the 
South was seen, urged the President by letter to put all the forts in 
Charleston harbor in a state of defence. In this he evinced the alacrity that 
prompted him under Gen. Jackson's orders, when he brought Charleston 
and the rebellion into submission, by bring ng the guas of the army and 
navy to bear upon that city when it hoisted the flag of uullification 
against the Union in 1832. Scott meant to crush the rebellion in the egg 
in this instance as in that ; but Buchanan foiled it as his superior. When 
Mr. Lincoln came in, and his Premier undertook to quell the revolt by 
concession, Scott could only say, in the confidential letter he wrote when 
acquiescing under the superiority of the civil to the railittry power. " Let 
our erring sisters depart in peace." Yet I am confident, from the patriotic 
course of the brave old man afterwards, that nothing could have induced 
him to acquiesce in Mr. Seward's course but the committals of Mr. Seward, 
who had ardently supported him for the Presidency against Mr. Pierce, 
and the persuasions that his diplomacy would bring all right after sur- 
rendering our flag, and with it the authority of our Government in the 
South, to that of the Confederacy. Tiie dalliance of Mr. Seward with the 
Confederate and the convention committees from Virginia, up to th-i fall 
of Fort Sumter, was but a prolongation of the agreement made with Davis, 
by order of Buchanan, under llie signatures of his Secretaries of War and 
of the Navy, that no aut of war would take place on the part of the 
United States during his term. This gave the Confederate General Beau- 
regard, an opportunity to build batteries under the guns of Fort Sumter, 
which could not have been done had not its cannon been muzzled by treaty 
stipulation. Mr. Seward's acquiescence in this state of things rendered 
the preparation for the attack more complete, while the forbearance to 
furnish provisions or reinforcements lo the garrison, on our part, effectually 
made good Mr. Seward's pledge for its surrender. 

It is apparent, from the whole course of public affairs, that Mr Seward 
acted in concert with Buchanan's Administration during the last three 
months of its term. He was, no doubt, advised, through Mr. Stanton, who 
was in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet, of the policy it had adopted in reference 
to the seizure of everything that appertaint-d to the nation in the Soath. 
It was owing to the coalition then formed between Mr. Seward and Mr. Stanton 
that the latter became Secretary of War to Mr. Lincoln. He apprised Mr. 
Seward of this treaty of the War and Navy Departments, under Buchanan, 
to makti uo resistance to the policy of disaolviug the Union — to offer no co> 



u 

ercion to impede its march to independence — and Mr. Seward's course 
shows that he approved ai.d adopted this policy. Is it not strange that 
Mr. ISeward should have kept that paralysis on the countiy from the 4th 
of March to the 13th of April, when the coiitiagration of biimter aroused 
the people ? Did Mr. Seward partake of the feeling which prompted Mr. 
Chase, his colleague in the Treasury, to exclaim, ^^ Let the South yo ; it is 
not worth Jiyhiitiy for? " Is it possible that these ambitious aspirants, who 
have shown such eagerness for the Presidency, are williug to sacrifice that 
vast, rich section of our Union to the petty object of personal aggrandize- 
ment ? 

Let me illustrate by example how the boldest Union men were paralyzed 
by the condition of things I have emieavorerl to portray. Judge Campbell, 
of Alabama, of whom I have spoken as transformed into a rebel commis- 
sioner, had been a devoted Union man. I knew of his heroic resistance to 
nullification. He had been the fir.-t man to breast the storm in Alabama 
in 1832, which threatened to bring on the rebellion then. I naturally 
looked to him to meet the new danger, and his feelings were unchanged, 
and he wrote and published earnest remonstianci-s agaiust the secession 
movement. I begged him to go again before his people in person, as in 
1832; he replied, that it would be of no use. His private letters which 
he read to me showed that the unsupported Union men were obliged to 
succumb before the organized and armed conspirators. The circumstances 
in the two eras, he said, were widely different. Then Jackson was here 
asserting the authority of the Government, and he felt that he could with 
such backing resist to some purpose, but no sensible man, however patri- 
tic, could tliiuk so now. 

Nor was it Southern Union men alone whose natural promptings to de- 
fend the Union were checked by the efforts of the existing and prospect ive 
authorities in Washington who were co-operating in this purpose. It was 
through these influences that the movements throughout the North for 
the armed defence of the Union were repressed, and the imjjression con- 
veyed to the South that secession would be peaceful. Let me recall an 
instance. The Pennsylvania Legislature met in January, IStJl, and a 
resolution was immediately presented, which, I believe, was unanimously 
adopted, declaring it to be the duty of the State authorities to raise, 
organize, and equip a military force for the defence of the Union. This 
movement was stopped from Washington, and among the means resorted 
to for the purpose, as I was informed by Speaker Pennington at the time, the 
Legislature were told by a distiuguisiied member from Maryland, then be- 
lieved to hold confidential relations witli the incoming Premier, that Mary- 
land would secede if the movement were persisted in. The movement 
was abandoned, and it was abandoned undoubtedly through his counsels 
and in reference to his position as the incomiug Premier. Non-resistance 
was, we have seen, his publicly declared policy in the Senate as it was in 
the Cabinet. He agreed with Judge Campbell, the rebel commissioner, 
for the surrender of fort Sumtei', and when the President came to a 
different determination, ne nevertheless made good his promise. He it 
was, undoubtedly, who gave the notice by the telegram sent through Mr. 
Harvey, then and still our Minister to Portugal, of the President's pur- 
po^e to reinforce. But the sucior never came. Mr. Seward got an order 
directly from the President withdrawing the Powhatan, the armed vessel 
assigned to the expedition by the Secretary of the Navy, without the 
knowledge of the Secretary, and witliout the President's knowing that 
the Powhatan was the vessel ordered to relieve Sumter. The men and 
provisions came, but not a sailor with them to put them in the fort, the 
Powhatan having been withdrawn. It was in deference to him that Gen. 



15 

Scott recommended the surrender of the fort — because the General during 
the previous Administration had wished to reinforce it, and had been 
refused permission to do so hy Mr. Holt, then Secretary of War. 

Mr. Holt, now the head of the Bureau of Military Justice, was then also 
a power in Washington. Whilst Secretary of War, as already stated, he 
refused to permit General Scott to reinforce Sumter, and he had, whilst 
Postmaster General, written and published a letter dated 3Uth November, 
1860, justifying the rebellion. H« says in that letter, the people of the 
North "have been taught that they are responsible for the doiuestic 
institutions of the South, and that they can be faithful to God oftly by 
being unfaithful to the compact they made with their fellow-men. Hence 
those liberty bills which degrade the statute books of some ten of the free 
States, and which are confessedly a shameless violation of the Federal 
Constitution in a point vital to her honor. We have here presented from 
year to year the humiliating spectacle of free and sovereign States, by a 
solemn act of legislation, leiializing the tht^/t of their neighbor's property. I 
say THEFT, since it is not the less so because the subject of the despicable 
crime chances to be a slave, instead of a horse or a bale of goods." After 
much to the same purport, he says : "I am still for the Union, because I 
have yet a, faint, hesitating hope that the North will do justice to the South 
and save the Republic before the wreck is complete. But the action must 
be prompt. If the free States will sweep the liberty hills from their codes, 
propose a convention of the States, and offer guaranties which will afford 
the same repose and safety to Southern homes and property enjoyed by 
those at the North, the impending tragedy may yet be averted, bctt not 
otherwise." Simultaneously with his refusal to permit succor to Fort 
Sumter and his armistice with the rebel Secretary, he refused his sanction 
to a bill introduced into the Senate, by Mr. Preston King, t > authorize the 
Union men in the South to organize themselves under the authority of 
the United States — refusing thus to allow them to defend themselves. 

Mr. Stanton, now Secretary of War, then Attorney General, was in full 
sympathy with the leaders in Congress who dragged the South into rebel- 
lion. He met Senator Brown, of Mississippi, at the door of the Supreme 
Court as he passed from the hall of the Senate, after taking leave of it as 
a secessionist forever. He encouraged him ; told him he was right ; it 
was the only course to save the South ; he must keep his constituents up 
to it, &;c. This is proved by Mr. Brown, former Senator from Mississippi, 
■who mentioned it at the time to the Hon. James S. Rollins, of Missouri. 
Mr. Saulsbury, Senator from Delaware, by a resolution offeied to the Sen- 
ate last winter, proposed to substantiate it before a committee of that bndy ; 
but the committee was not granted. The fact is confirmed, too, by the 
known relations of the Secretary to parties at the time, and I have been 
assured by one of his colleagues in Buchanan's Cabinet that in his inter- 
course with IJls associates of that ilk he was most violent in denouncing 
any attempt to maintain the Union by force, and continued his denuncia- 
tions till he entered Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. 

Is it not for this that he was so lauded and glorified by the Thad. 
Stevens party in the resolutions of the recent convention at Harrisburg, 
in which President Johnson is substantially pronounced an usurper for 
presuming to set up governments in the Southern States, instead of call- 
ing on Congress to take the subject in hand, to which they claim it be- 
longs exclusively ? They declare also that these States should not be al- 
lowed State governments, and their motive for claiming authority for 
Congress is evidently because they believe Congress would not sanction 
the organization of such governments. Mr. Stanton concurs with them, 
and has been and is yet aiding them effectively in their scheme. This ex- 



16 

plains the retention so long of a vast and unnecessary military force, and 
some of the remarkable movements made by portions of it, involving 
enormous expenditures, as I believe, against the wif^hes of the General-in- 
Chief and the remonstrances of the Secretary of the Treasury. Besides 
the corruption fund thus secured, it serves to bankrupt the Treasury, and 
thus compel the call of Congress, a great point in the game of his asso- 
ciates. 

I revert to these facts to prove that the Government of the United 
States— the great functionaries entrusted with the administration — are 
responsible for the subjugation of the Southern people to the usurpation 
of the conspirators who plotted secession in the halls of Congress and in 
the caucuses they held in the Capitol. It was here, from year to year, 
that the scheme was plotted and the missive's and emissaries were sent 
that got up the secret societies, that organized the military force under 
the Knights of the Golden Circle, and provided arms from the arsenals of 
the Union. The Federal Government, which, from the time that Jeflf. 
Davis was Secretary of War, was in the hands of men secretly conspiring 
against the liberties of the North and South, was constantly used to give 
resurrection to the rebellion which General Jackson had supp essed. If 
Mr. Buchanan had allowed the orders to be revived and acted on, given 
by General Jackson to General Scott, and again recommeuded by the lat- 
ter, the rebellion would have been strangled in its birth. No navy yard 
or fort would have been taken ; no army surrendered ; no arms provided. 
Instead of this, the Government of the United States, as I have shown, 
contributed the essential aid which enabled the conspirators to put down 
the unarmed people of the South and compel them to suffer conscription 
to fill their armies ; impressment of every species of supply — horses, food, 
clothing, wagons, everything — to surrender every vestige of protection of 
law of their own States as well as the United States. 

The scheme for the dissolution of the Union had been for more than 
thirty years brooding in Washington. It had its origin with the slave- 
holding autocrats, sickened with the inferiority to which their section and 
themselves were doomed by the servile institution, which inflamed at once 
their vanity and ambition. The politicians who gathered at Washington 
as the representatives of this class, constituted, as they thought, an order 
of nobility destined to put down the popular government which subjected 
them to an irksome dependence on the people. It was this Congress-bred 
gentility from the South, flushed with the triumph of their intrigues in 
bringing the Government undfer their control, that contrived, organized, 
and directed the conspiraoy. Like all conspiracies which have led to civil 
wars, it was born and bred in the capital. Rome, London, Paris, through 
successive ages, have been the centres where the plots were laid which, on 
explosion, shook not only their home governments, but those of foreign 
nations. The great body of the people of the south had no hand in the 
concoction of the plot which has actually convulsed this country. They 
were as innocent as the people of the North, yet in every shape in which 
wretchedness can be visited, the South has been the victim. It was the 
highest constitutional duty of the Government of the United States to have 
warded oS' the blow which has prostrated this region. The arm was raised 
to strike in its very presence The men in the capital, in both halls of 
Congress, the usurpers themselves, announced the fact that they had 
given orders that it should be struck. They formally took their leave of 
the Government whose authority they were about to prostrate in the' de- 
voted section they had resolved to rule or ruin ; and they were told by the 
head of the Administration going out, "Go ahead, we will not ' coerce ' 
the usurped State power you have contrived to get in your hands." The 



17 

1 

Premier of the incoming Administration says, also, "Go ahead, we wil 
confront your revolutionary movements with concession, violence with 
conciliation and the right-hand of fellowship." The fall of Sumter imme- 
diately followed this, the attempt to saccor it being turned aside by the 
hand of the Premier, who had engaged that it should fall. What were 
the people of the South to infer from this ? 

An immense majority, some sixty or seventy thousand, of the people of 
Virginia had given their voice for the Government of their fathers. In 
those States farther south, where the Knights of the Golden Circle exerted 
all their secretly armed police to dragoon and drag the people to vote to 
throw off the Union aud substitute the Confederacy, a majority of voters 
could no where be brought to sanction it. But when Sumter fell, what 
could individuals expect who were everywhere under the heel of the 
usurpers ? Would the nation's Government defend them in any loyal 
effort? Mr. Buchanan, the head of the Government, said, "It had no 
right to do it," and Mr. Seward, the Premier of the new Administration, 
had said, we icill not succor nor defend even the strongholds of Gncernment — 
strongholds built to keep rebellion and ususpati(m in check. What could 
loyal men do under such circumstances but submit ? 

They were pressed into the army by conscriptiom If they lied from their 
homes and hid in morasses to escape, they were hunted down by blood- 
hounds, and put in the front of battle with the reguL-irs of tin- Golden Cir- 
cle in their rear. The property of everybody was a prey, and those only 
who professed the utmort zeal to the military power could hope to have 
any share in what belonged to them. 

Is it not monstrous that our Government should hold a people, put in 
this predicament, if we may not say by its own acts, yet certainly by its 
supineness and acquiescence, responsible for the crimes of an usurpation 
thus put over them ? 

And yet the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens takes this stard for the Govern- 
ment of the United States in the resolutions which h« recently got up a 
convention to pass at Harrisburg. He thinks that as Pennsylvania elected 
Mr. Buchanan President, who devoted his administration to hatch the 
treason which has trodden down the great commonalty of our own race ii 
the South, so it has elected liim as an agent to complete their d(!struction 
and set up a foreign race to take their place in the National Commonwealth. 

According to the j.rogramme of the Stevens resolutions, there are no 
loyal men in the South but the enfran hised blacks ; the white man who 
sttccumbed to the usurpation and obeyed its behests — and this every man 
was compelled to do — is disfranchised as disloyal. In logical sequence 
from this state of facts, the National Legislature is to absorb all legisla- 
tion, State and National, over the wliole South. It is to assume absohitu 
power over everything south of Mason and Dixon's line — and how is it to 
be exercised ? 

Mr. Stevens, forgetting that our Government was bound by the Constitti- 
tion to protect the people of every State from all domestic violence and 
usurpation, as well as foreign invasion, and in failing to do it might be 
jtistly held to indemnify the loyal people who have suffered by the rebel- 
lion, has the hardihood to declare in his resohitions that the people of the 
South, en masse, confounding the innocent with the guilty, are bound, out 
of their substance, to paj the whole national debt incurred by the war. 
This is somewhat like tying a millstone round the neck of every man of the 
commonalty and throwing him into the ocean. It certainly overwhel.us 
him in the flood from which he can hardly swim out with such a weight. 

But this, it may be said, is only a life-long incumbrance of generations, 
rightfully imposed on the poor white posterity dwelling in slave States, to 



18 

expiate as the children the sins of their forefathers. But lest some men 
wlio have considerable substance in land or other estate that has survived 
the war may go to work and build up again an independence for them- 
selves and thcii- devoted country, Mr. Stevens has provided another 
sweeping resolution, which cuts down at one blow all such aspirations. 
The resolution is that confiscation, like our great reaping machines, shall 
be driven like a steam engine of our absolute Government — absolute over 
the South — and reduce all foitunes to $10,000 value. It does not say 
whether the valuation is to be Confederate paper or greenbacks. But 
wlieiher it be one or the other, the stubble-field will be little worth the 
gleaning when we shall have first extracted the war debt from the un- 
happy subjects of the rebellion. To get a Government sufficiently 
hardened^ to execute these decrees, Mr. Stevens appeals to the soldiers, 
and tells them that no man is everto be noniiiiatt^d for any office unless ho 
has served in the fit-Id. So they are to be the dispensers of all the spoils 
of the stript, the naked children. IIow little this veteran politician 
knows the magnanimous patriots who fought their battles for the liberal 
and luerciful institutions ot our country ! They are the last men in the 
world to urge to cruelty in cold blood. These men when hungry took the 
bread out of their own haversacks and gave their canteens to their pros- 
trate foes. Let them judge the South, and we are all brothers. 

Mr. Stevens next promises the manufacturers unbounaed protection if 
they will onl^' help him to strip the South and reduce it to utter ruin. 
The manufacturers, so far from doing this, will lend it their capital, at 
least ere it, that they may cloth the South and enable it to produce fresh 
material for their operatives, and rich markets for the result of their suc- 
cessful industry. He appeals to the holders of the Government bonds, 
saying the plunder of the South is to pay their debt. They will reply, 
we will not kill the goose that lays the golden egg. 

Rut who is to execute the Draconic dt- crees of Thaddeus and his omni- 
potent parliament ? Who is to squeeze out the taxes from the desolated 
South to pay the whole war debt? Who is to carry out the sweeping 
confiscation throughout all rebeldom and divide the lands among the only 
loyal people of the South — tlie negroes ? 

'I'he resolutions name the President as a proper sort of man ; but he it 
plainly told that his scheme of restoring the Union will not do. It is too 
rose-water, milk-water, too lenient ; and yet Mr. Stevens says the rebels 
reject it. But Thaddeus knows a man who can do the business, who can 
compile his doomsday book of conquests and confiscations. Who could 
be better fitted lor it than the man to whose prodigious energies and ex- 
cellencies it would seem all our succ<?sses are to be ascribed? This man 
has a resolution of extollation in the platform all to himself, exalting him. by 
name, in contrast with the poor cital made of the President, to make him 
like "Hyperion to a Satyr." The rest of the Cabinet are thrown in 
the lump, not named but as " the colleagues" of Mr. Stanton. They are 
worthy gentlemen that must pass. 

Now this is not altogether an absurd distribution of parts in the Execu- 
tive power, considering the work cut out for it by Mr. Stevens. He is 
radical from tlie foot to the crown of his head. He is a root-and-branch 
man, and could spare nothing of the Government but the body — the Con- 
gress — and that he would turn into a revolutionary club. He wants a 
revolution — he wants a Marat to work it up. Who can fill the function so 
well as Mr. Stanton ? He wants a guillotine. He wants a Santerre, the 
butcher, to reign on its scaffold and ply its axe. Can any one doubt that 
Mr. Stanton would take this part ? And if Mr. Stevens would add pecu- 
liar bitterness to the execution of the process of his revolutionary tribu- 



19 

nals in wasting the south and harrowing the feelings of its victims, could 
there be a better selection of an agent to pour gall into wounds tlian Mr. 
Stanton? I have already referred to his urging on tlie rebellion.'' He was 
the new member brought into the Cabinet, when Cass l^■l't on the ground 
that it would not "coerce" — espe'cially that it voted Sumter should not 
be reinforced and defended, which he considered as giving aid to the re- 
bellion, and resigned. Now, if this man, who was the prompter, the 
Cabinet adviser of the measures which contributed to carry the South out 
— if this man, who was appointed because of his full sympathy with Mr, 
Buchanan in his whole connection with the Southern chiefs wlio conducted 
its schemes touching the dissolution of the Union — if this man, who 
brought them into tlie treason for wliich they are to sutler, is to stand 
over them in mockery at the execution, it would certainly add bitterness 
even to the agony of death. 

The measures the President has adapted to invite the people of the 
Southern States to resume their constitutional riglits, now that the Gov- 
ernment has at length discharged its duty in putting down the armed 
force which subjected them, proceed upon the facts I have recited, and 
the knowledge he, in common with every intelligent man of the South, 
possesses, that the people mire at all times ready to do tlieir duty when the 
Government had performed the obligations imposed upon it by the Consti- 
tution. 

We have also, in the abolishment of slavery, a sure bond for the future 
fidelity of all persons at the South to the Union. Whilst it is true that 
the hearts of the people were never alienated from the Government, it is 
equally true that, by the constitution of society there, the leaders were 
enabled to drag them into the rebellion. ' Slavery was the leverage by 
which this was elTected. But that great implement of mischief, the source 
of so many woes, and to which the fathers of the Qrovernment looked with 
so much apprehension, is now forever gone. 

The public jmlgmeut requires acquiescence in the thorough measure of 
universal emancipation as the condition of renewed participation in the 
Government. This proceeds upon the ground that slavery was the cause 
of the rebelliou, and that until it is blotted out, and the people surrender 
it, there is danger ot a renewal of the struggle.' To this propos tion I 
agree. But 1 ask of those with whom I have been associated in maintain- 
ing this proposition, that they should accept its logical consequences. 
With what justice or reason can we inflict further penalties upon the peo- 
ple of the South after we have eradicated what we agree was the so/e cause 
of their errors, and obliterated an institution whicli alone distinguished 
them in their social condition from other American citizeflis. If this insti 
tutiou had been one of their own creating, there might, indeed, be some 
color of reason in- pursuing them furtlier ; but when, instead of that being 
the case, history shows that it was forced upon them in the infancy of 
their settlements by the policy of foreign despots, against the most earnest 
protests of their forefathers, we must admit that they are blameless for the 
existence of the accursed thing in their midst. "Neither by the Constitu- 
tion nor by the rules of justice, having extirpated the cause and subdued 
the rebellion, can we do more. So far from it, indeed, the dictates of hu- 
manity require that the Government should do all in its power to heal the 
wounds wiiich it has been necessary to inflict upon our brethren, who^ 
have become the victims of an institution forced upon them by the tyran- 
ny of European despots. ' ~~\ 

And tliis was the spiiit of Abraham Lincoln, and he but reflected that_J 
of the American people. It is also the spirit of Andrew .Johnson. He 
wears, indeed, a stern and more commanding aspect in his dealings with 



20 

the rebels, and has thereby more suddenly and completely humbled and 
subdued their fi^ry cavaliers. But, like his stem old hero neighbor of the 
lierinitage, in whose school he was educated, he is too brave to trample 
upon the vauquished ; no one ever had a gentler heart in his bosom than 
^Andrew Johnson, and yet no one was ever more tierce and defiant to those 
noAV humbled and defeated cavaliers in the days of their power and pride. 
To the incontrovertible facts I have recited establishing the practicability 

t and ja>tice of adhering to thejilaiii letter of the Constitution, there is no 
answer, but ambition backed by power will justify itself with very little 
regard for right or even of appearances. Richard, when he orderedHast- 
iugs to execution, showing his withered arm as evidence that he had be- 
witched him, did so to scoflf at his victim ; and the affected fears of the 
crushed South, assumed by the ambitious leaders of the Noth to justify 
the destruction of th.'ir political rights, sounds not unlike the mockery of 
Gloster. liut tlie lust of dominicm from which such actions spring is the 
most unreasoning, intolerant, and remorseless passion of the humau 
~ bosom. It knows no Constitution, and does not listen to truth or justice. 
Vv'e will appeal in vain to tlie words of the Constitution to protect us in 
our rights to leaders phrenzied with tlie imperial idea of ruling the conti- 
nent by holding one-half of it without responsibility to its people, requir 
ing a militai-y force to do so, which would make them masters of the 
whole. In vain we shall ask for justice to the Union men of the 8outh 
from such men. They cannot Iprego their lofty aspirations to recognize 
the existence of any such class/^ You cannot have forgotten how fiercely 

'"my head was demanded when I ventured to assert the rights of the Union 
nu'u of the tioulh against this form of imperialism when broached in 18o3. 
I had been fiom early manliood an opponent of slavery ; I had assisted 
my brother in organizing the first and only victorious emancipation party 
wiiicli existed in the South prior to the rebellion; I was in favor of main- 
taining Fremont's proclamation ; and, failing in that, I had recommended, 
iu writing, Presideut Lincoln to make one himself in his annual message 
of 18G1. I had defended Lincoln's emancipation proclamation when it 
was made, in a speech, which Senator Sumner himself did me the honor 
to quote with approbation. I had lead in the emancipation movement in 
Maryland, and never faltered till its success was achieved. But, notwith- 
standing the furore about emanciiation by those people, this early, earnest, 
and constant support of emancipation on my part did not satisfy them. So 
far from it, I was, I believe, the most odious man to them on the conti- 
nent. No, there was one still more odious, one still better abused by 
Phillips, Cliase, Davis & Co. I need not tell you that man was Abraham 
Lincoln, the atithor of the emancipation proclamation ; and to such an ex- 
tent had these men poisoned the minds of some of our true men against me, 
that I apprehended that my continuance in the Cabinet might affect the elec- 
tion, and therefore insisted upon withdrawing. Nor was it because I had 
done anything to make myself personally offensive. My only offence con- 
sisted in asserting the equal rights of my p(iople ; and you see they would 
not tolerate any Southern man in the Cabinet who stood for the rights of 
the Union men of the South under the Constitution. // 

U^ I have not referred to myself in this connection"to give myself im- 
portance. I have done so because the example was required to illustrate 
the true spirit of those who seek in the g^ise of pre-eminent loyalists 
and transcendent emancipationists to annihilate the States and destroy the 
Constitution; and Mr. Raymond, the chairman of the committee by 
whom the resolution relating to the Cabinet was reported in the late 
National Convention, has publicly stated that the managers aimed there- 
by to give themselves authority for demanding my removal by the Presi- 



21 

dent. The people of the country may see in this that it is not Unionism 
and emancipation they seek — and it concerns the people of the whole 
country to mark it. They propose, indeed, to strike the South down first. 
The Union men then must sulfer with th^ rebels for the misfortune of 
being born in the same region. Their most precious rights are to be 
wrenched from them, regardless of their devotion to the Union, through 
good and tlirough evil report, for the crime of not being able to resist se- 
cession when enforced by color of State authority, sanctioned and acquiesced 
in by the National Groveniment. Every one- who raises his voice against 
this llagrant injustice is denounced as an ally of Copperheads and traitors. 
As it is proposed to treat all Southern men alike, it is necessary, to elfect 
this puj^ose, that the people of the North should be taught to regard us 
all as criminals. All are in fact equally olfenders in their eyes. It is the 
claim for themselves and their fellows of their rights as citizens which 
offends. It is the monopoly of power which is sought, and that design is 
equally frustrated by allowing the Southern States tlieir rights, whetlii r 
in the hands of Union men or rebels. All agree in discarding the shibbo- 
leth of the Imperialists. There are some, indeed, who give private assu- 
rances that they will work up to it by-and-by, and who, by joining in the 
clamor against the dead rebellion, arc co-operating with the Imperialists 
in propagating the idea that the safety of the eountry requires the exclu- 
sion Irom Congress of re^esentatives from the South, and thus uontribu- 
ting to fix the conviction upon the public mind that it is necessary to sub- 
vert tiie rule of the white man in the South before that region can be 
restored to a share in the Government. Swarms of hireling writers are 
sent over the South, who go there as the English tourists come to 
America, with a foregone conclusion against the country — most of them 
in the pay of the War Department, but of the non-combatant species, 
whose continuance in the service depends on making the impression that 
secession is not dead but sleepeth. 

The Southern man who joins in continuing this clamor against the 
South is aiding in disfranchising the Soitth, and thew/iole South, Maryland 
included. We may, indeed, have persons from Maryland filling seats, but 
those who reflect the feelings of our people will be without power. Tliose 
only who are elected as the member from the First District in the last 
Congress and one of our present Senators were elected will find favor with 
the Imperialists. That is, by the use of public money and military force 
directly applied. Let me give some particulars. A regular Commissary 
was removed from Baltimore last .winter, as the Senatorial election was 
coming on, and a politician in the volunteer service, recommended for 
the position by Mr. Davis to the Secretary of War, because of his being 
an anti Blair man, was put in the place. This man and Ihe Quarter- 
master assessed the merchants dealing with the Government heavily to 
raise money to be tised m the election against me and my friends. The 
Quartermaster, I learn, raised $40,000. How much the Commissary raised 
I do not know, but he has been heard to boast that it was by the money 
he raised that I. was beaten. Some of the preliminary steps were taken 
openly by the Department. A number of the Senators elected by the 
people were arrested, and others threatened till compelled to resign, and 
their successors were elected by the same use of military power as the 
member from the First District had been in 18G3. On that occasion the 
most earnest Union men in the district were arrested — such men as Col, 
Spencer, Jesse Hines, and others, who had boldly sustained Governor 
Hicks, whilst Mr. Creswell their senatorial nominee was openly denouncing 
him and demanding, by his resolations adopted at Elkton, that our rebel 
Legislature should be called together, and pledging Maryland to go with the 



22 

South. Mr. Claytou, who was Mr. Creswell's nominee for MarsLal lately, 
];ad blank warrants furnished him without limit, signed by Don Piatt, to ar- 
reitanj'man he should consider in the way of Creswell's election. If was 
proved, also, I understand, before a committee of the Legislature, that some 
time prior to this election Mr. Davis informed a gentleman on the Eastern 
Shore, believing him to be of his party, that all the necessary measures 
would be taken to carry the election ; that the order had been prepared 
and printed by General Schenck, but that it would not do to publish it 
till within a few days before the election, because Blair would get Lincoln 
te revoke it, and this proved to be the fact. The order was revoked, but 
the revocation, as had been well calculated, did not reach the Eastern 
Shore in time. Members so chosen represent Mr. Stanton, not th^people 
of Alarylaud, and serve but to delude our happier and freer neighoors as 
to our sentiments. It would be far better and more consistent witli ,true 
dignity lor us to share the absolute disfranchisement of the other Southern 
States, than to have our seats lilled by the nominees of Mr. Stanton. And 
this brings me to c -nsider a measure adapted by the Legislature, as 
eliminated, remodeled, and corrupted by the instruments of this ma^, 
which threatens to disturb the harmony of our people, and to plant rank- 
ling and bitterness in the liearte of neighbors. 1 allude to the law for the 
registration of voters By the terms of fhat law three members of the 
dominant party constitute a tribunal in each selection district, (dothed 
with absolute power to' disfranchise whom they please. Thus a penalty 
which has heretoioie been inflicted only upon persons convicted of infa- 
mous Climes, after a fair and opt-n trial by a court and jury, may be im- 
posed by a secret inquisition. That multitudes of good citizens, against 
whom no one would dare publicly to make any dishonorable charge, will 
thus be branded as felons is most probable. Men who are earnest in a cause, 
even when disinterested, are apt to doubt the patriotism of zealous oppo- 
nent-?. But when they have a selfish motive to heat their passions, 
toleration is almost impossible. But many of our registers are expectant 
candidates for the suffrages they are deciding upon. They are generally, 
too, the nomiuees of the county committees, who are made up for the 
mo.st part of standing candidates of the party. Nothing but a strong 
public sentiment can prevent a partizan enforcement of such a law. I 
have been against it from the begiiniing for this reason. Exasperation 
against the rebellion affected most of those, who voted for it, but it was 
instigated, I fear, by partisanship. It bears the stamp of a disfranchising 
spirit which existed before the rebellion, the leaders in which taught the 
rebels how to organize in secret to carry elections against the public will. 
In my opinion there never was any justification for such a law, and cer- 
tainly there* is none now. The ostensible reason has passed with the 
rebellion, .and the maxim that the law ought to cease with the reason for 
it applies in- such a case undoubtedly. 

Secession is not indigenous to Maryland. Calhoun had not a half a 
dozen friends in the State in 1S32. If Governor Hicks had yielded, the 
State would have been forced into secession. I doubt not but it would 
have been recognized by the rebel Government then installed in Washington, 
of which as we h<ive seen, Mr. Stanton was a most active and mischievous 
member. We have held on to our allegiance since, I religiously believe, 
against his wishes and constant efforts to drive us into rebellion, and we have 
emancipated the State, and thus got rid of the only question which could 
by possibility prevent us from being a prosperous and hapjiy people. 
Why, then, should we continue on our statute-book an act to pronounce 
our political adversaries felons because of expressions and feelings which, 
though wrong, were not reduced to act ? Observe how the conduct of those 
called rebel sympathiaers in Maryland contrasts with the same people in 



23 

other border States. No Union man has been murdered here in hi^^ house, 
or his fields, although our lines run for hundreds of miles along the lines 
of Dixie, and the young men who have come and gone from amongst us— 
most of them driven away, I verily believe, by fear of an-est or passions 
consequent upon the arrest of friends— have not imitated the ferocity so 
frequently exhibited elsewhere before departing. This was not the temper 
of our people. Considering the amount of property sacrificed m the slave 
institution, and the feeling connected with it, nurtured through genera- 
tions, and the harrying they have undergone, we may pardon soniethm; 
of angry expressions and feelings of resentment towards a Government 
which they thought bore so heavily upon them. • 

But »am told the law is on the statute-book, and the Executive and his 
appointees are bound to enforce it. " t /• .u • • 

It is an embarrassing state of things certainly. But I am of the opinion 
myself that the act is unconstitutional. It inflicts infamous punishments 
without a trial, in a State where public order is not disturbed, and is re- 
trospective in its operation. , , ^ . , i . i -ti 
Is it just to disfranchise Mr. Creswell and the friends who voted with 
him in pledging Maryland to the South by public resolutions at Elkton m 
1861 ? Yet if this law is to be enforced, he cannot vote. The war was 
then flagrant. The forts, arsenals, and other public property were being 
seized everywhere in the South, and such resolutions from such a place 
were most mischievous, and " gave comfort and aid to the enemy." But 
notwithstanding this, I do not think Mr. Cresvveli or those who voted with 
him, all of whom I have no doubt were and are Union men, ought to be 
branded as felsns and disfranchised, or can be, consistently with the ^oii-^ 
Btitution of the United States. . -^^^ 

The war is over. There is no slavery to make a new one. The passions 
connected with it are subsiding. We have a great career before us. Our 
struggle bloody and expensive as it has been, will impart a new life to the 
countiy and new impeti B to industry. Let us set the example of inaugu- 
rating^ an era of good feeling. If I have seemed, m the reflections I have 
made in this address upon the distinguished men I have named, to be ani- 
mated by a different spirit, let me assure you I have animadverted on their • 
acts only because they are the representative men of the unrelenting party 
in the country, and I want to show tbem that their heroes have also need 
of amnesty. I am willing they should have it. But, on the other hand, 
I should like Judge Campbell and Mr. Stephens, and others who have 
erred to be forgiven— that our people should have real peace and a share 
in the Government their fathers founded and which they have to maintain. 
And I ask this, not out of any feeling that the section I was born in is more 
my country than any other. I ask it for the sake of the whole country, 
Free government cannot last long in either section with a practical dismem- 
berment of the Union, or with the assertion by the General Government of 
greater power over any one State than the Constitution allows or than is 
claimed or would be tolerated in another. The military subjection of one 
section entails in the end .arbitrary government upon both. _ Our Eagle 
must expand both its wings. Our National Republic must poise itself on ^ 
both sections, if it would move safely on its glorious mission. 



m 




